Philosophers stoned in Amsterdam, Gorbi in Berlin, third reality check for Robert

The coffee was good. The music was a bit too loud for his taste. The customers were a mix of locals and tourists. They were smoking marijuana pure, for such were the Dutch regulations. Robert was sitting in the Caravaggio coffee shop on the Haarlemmerstraat in Amsterdam. He had arrived there with the Thalys from Paris, to give a talk on Freemasons and communism this evening in the Goethe Institute, to mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall on November 9, 1989. As he scrolled through the text of his speech on the screen of his iPhone, three people came over and joined his table. Two women and a Frenchman in a mild state of euphoria as a result of eating some space cake containing some very fine charas. Alphonse, Sarayu and Trylyan were here for a short vacation and a conference on social media and spirituality, a typical Amsterdam mix of New Age, cutting edge technology and alternative art.
Why do I have the feeling that I know these guys.
They all introduced themselves. Alphonse was a writer doing research for his latest book on the origins of the tarot. Sarayu had just finished her masters in IT and ecology. Trylyan was a social media guru and shoe collector. They were working on a new social media platform for mobile technology and stuff. It was a great game. The three had more money than sense and never took things too seriously. They were a creative dream team, rock stars of galactic humor out to make a killing with the 2012 meme. They were geeks, freaks and more than just a little bit stoned. Robert found their company amusing. It distracted him from trying to figure out his recurring dream, in which he watched the execution of John the Baptist in a schoolyard. The name of the coffee shop reminded him that Caravaggio's paintings were also in the dream. Phallic Washington Monuments and Eiffel Towers combined with a feeling of being out of breath as the sword fell...
Water! I cannot get out of this tank, the white light. Panic.
"Why are you in Amsterdam, Robert?" asked Trylyan.
"To give a talk on communism and Freemasons."
"Cool. Awesome!"
"Are you that DaVinci code guy?" asked Sarayu.
Oh no not again! Everywhere I go. No more Illuminati today please.

He felt like a train wreck. When did he last have a good nights sleep? Sometimes he almost thought he was hallucinating. In front of him was a Belgian chocolate brownie.
"Enjoy, Monsieur." said Alphonse.
Robert had a glimpse of some vast continuum as he looked at the brownie. Deja vu? He felt he had been here in this moment before. Sceptic that he was he took a bite of the brownie to see if it tasted as good as he remembered. It did. Weird, he thought. Am I awake or dreaming?

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